Open    Access



Manabi as an Alternative Concept of Learning in Educational Discourses



Author(s)

Masamichi Ueno, Kayo Fujii, Yasunori Kashiwagi, Taku Murayama

Full-Text PDF XML     1085 Views

DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2018.02.004

This paper considers a theory and practices of Japanese manabi (学び) as an alternative concept of learning in the era of post-globalization. Although the term manabi is widely used as the translation of learning and Lernen in the field of pedagogy and in Japanese schools, it is important to understand its meaning, since the meaning of manabi is a comprehensive concept that differs semantically from the words learning, Lernen, and Bildung in the Western words. Faced with the globalization in the 21st century, there has been a tendency to promote educational reform and curriculum policies that could be characterized as “learnification” in which “21st century skills,” “competency-based learning,” and “learner-centered education” are emphasized. While the Western idea of learning that highlights active self is attractive to change classroom practices from the transmission of knowledge to an innovative style of active, collaborative, communicative learning, and problem-solving, Japanese education sustains traditional values that derive from selflessness and nothingness in Eastern philosophy. 

manabi, nothingness, selflessness, recognition, inclusiveness